Broadwater soars under pressure

Broadwater soars under pressure

With the weight of the world on her shoulders, the Williamsport junior soared.

Broadwater won three jumping titles at the Maryland State Track & Field Championships last month -- all with personal-best leaps -- to lift the Wildcats to the Class 1A girls team title.

"I love the pressure," said Broadwater, The Herald-Mail's All-Area and All-Washington County Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year. "I love being the last person to make a jump. I love when my competition sets the bar even higher so I have to do even better."

She couldn't have done much better than she did at the state meet.

First she won the triple jump with an area-leading mark of 36 feet, 6 inches. Then, in the very last jump of the long jump competiton, she soared from second to first with a school-record leap of 17-7 1/2.

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And in the 18th and final event of the meet, Broadwater won the high jump for the second straight year, clearing a school-record and area-best height of 5-7 1/4. That victory moved the Wildcats from second to first in the team standings, as they edged Western Tech 66-64 for the title.

"It was one of the best overall performances I've ever seen," Williamsport coach John Bailey said. "She was so calm in the high jump that she looked like she had been there before, and she had. She won the long jump on her last jump. She knows what she needs to do and likes to face the challenge. She's that kind of kid. She comes through."

"It's still overwhelming to this day. I can't believe I did it," Broadwater said. "I always want to peak at the right moment, and this year it was dead on in all three events. I had been struggling all season long with my long jump. That was the one I had to work at the most to get."

Broadwater, who also periodically ran legs of the Wildcats' 4x100 and 4x200 relays this spring, scored a single-season, school-record 266.05 points.

"We've had some pretty good girl athletes, and she beat the No. 1-rated girl by 30 points," Bailey said. "And she has another year to go."

"I'm even more thrilled for next year," Broadwater said. "Hopefully, I'll get four (state titles)."

Four?

"The coaches are saying discus, but I'm not sure about that," she said. "If it will help get that fourth state title, maybe."

Whatever it takes for her team to win.

"We're not going to stop," she said. "We're going to get it again."

Broadwater, a two-sport star, made a verbal commitment last week to the University of Connecticut to play volleyball on a full athletic scholarship.